ICYMI: Making the Connection Between Affordability and Preservation

(l. to r.) Westbeth at West and Bethune Streets (photo: Barry Munger), First Houses (NYCHA at Ave. A and 3rd St.), Bea Arthur Residence for Homeless LGBTQ+ Youth, 222 East 13th Street: examples of adaptive reuse for permanently affordable housing in our neighborhoods.

Our city faces intense pressure on multiple fronts right now, and its future is very much up in the air. 2025 is an election year when every city office will be on the ballot; those elected to serve will make enormously important decisions about our future, including around development, preservation, and affordability.

That’s why Village Preservation has released our Position Paper on Preservation and Affordability, which has been sent to every NYC elected official, and will inform our spring candidate forums and questionnaires to candidates for public office. The paper summarizes Village Preservation’s work and policy positions regarding preservation and affordability, and will inform them going forward. In short, we:

  • Support preservation of existing affordable housing, and oppose policies like upzonings that encourage the loss of such housing 
  • Support the creation of new affordable housing, with appropriate scale and design for its surroundings and context 
  • Oppose policies intended to dramatically increase the size, scale, and amount of unaffordable housing, which does nothing to help affordability, and can hurt it
  • Support prioritizing adaptive reuse of existing buildings as a first means to create needed new development in our city, including affordable housing 
  • Support requiring mechanisms to ensure existing and new affordable housing remains permanently affordable 

You can read the paper HERE.

TO HELP:

Tell elected officials you support these principles for creating a city that prioritizes both preservation and affordability — CLICK HERE

Learn more about preservation and affordability — CLICK HERE. 

February 18, 2025